The Symposium Organizers are grateful to the Florida International University Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine and the College of Arts, Sciences and Education for co-sponsorship and financial support.

Metals, both essential or toxic, are key players in normal human physiology, morbidity and mortality. They affect crucial biological processes associated with onset, progression, and exacerbation of diseases. They play crucial roles across a range of conditions including cardiovascular, respiratory, and neurological diseases, diabetes and cancer. One focus of the presentations will be on genetic diseases that affect metal homeostasis. The relationship between changes in metal handling during ageing, systemic and organ-specific inflammation, oxidative stress and their implications for health will be covered in this symposium.

Overall, topics of this symposium will range from research in various fields such as mechanisms of biotransformation of biometals and trace elements; roles of essential and environmental biometals and their relationship to human health, from population-level impacts to the development of diagnostics and therapeutics; their impact on ecosystems, and sustainable solutions, and the latest transformative technologies shaping the future of biometal research.

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A primary focus of this symposium is to highlight the distinguished career and outstanding achievements of Barry Philip Rosen over his half-century of of bimetals research. Barry Rosen is currently Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine. He received his B.S. in biology from Trinity College in 1965 and Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Connecticut in 1969, followed by a Public Health Service Fellowship in the laboratory of Leon Heppel at Cornell University. He next joined the Department of Biological Chemistry at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 1972, where he went from Assistant to Full Professor. He moved to Wayne State University School of Medicine in 1987, where he assumed the position of Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He retired from Wayne State University in 2009 as Distinguished Professor Emeritus. He joined the newly founded Florida International University Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine in 2009 as Associate Dean for Basic Science Research until 2016, when he was appointed Distinguished University Professor. Rosen was a Visiting Professor in both the Department of Microbiology, Okayama University, Okayama, Japan and the Department of Physiology, Yale University Medical School from 1979-1981. He has nearly 400 publications and numerous awards, including Basil O'Connor Award from the March of Dimes, Maryland Distinguished Young Scientist Award, Josiah Macy, Jr. Faculty Scholar Award and FIU Top Scholar Award. Dr. Rosen has been continuously funded by NIH and NSF since 1972. He was first awarded an NIH R01 grant in 1984 for his arsenic research project. This project has been continuously funded for 40 years as a R01, NIH MERIT Award and currently as an NIH MIRA until 2025, putting it within the top 100 longest continuously projects funded by NIH. He has six patents and is a Senior Member of the National Academy of Inventors. He has been on many grant panels including NIH study sections and NSF panels and served on numerous editorial boards including the Journal of Biological Chemistry, Journal of Bacteriology and Microbiological Reviews. He was elected President of the Association of Medical and Graduate Departments of Biochemistry and is an elected fellow of the American Academy for Microbiology (ASM) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Dr. Rosen credits his collaborators with his success. They provided ideas, reagents and, most importantly, the people who did the actual research. He trained 22 doctoral students, 55 postdoctoral associates and multiple visiting scholars who made the real discoveries, many of whom are participating in this symposium.

Thursday, December 5, 2024

Venue: Pullman Miami International Airport Hotel 

5:00 PM to 9:00 PM

Registration and Reception

Friday, December 6, 2024

Venue: FIU MARC Pavilion

8:00 AM

Pick up at hotel

8:20 AM to 8:40 AM

Introductory Remarks (Dr. Yong Cai)

Juan Carlos Cendán, M.D., Dean Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine

Michael R. Heithaus, Ph.D., Dean, College of Arts, Sciences & Education

Walter Van Hamme, Ph.D. Dean, School of Integrated Science and Humanity, College of Arts, Sciences & Education

8:40 AM to 9:10AM

Remembrances, Barry P. Rosen, Distinguished University Professor, FIU HWCOM

Speakers (Session Chair: Tongqing Zhou)

9:10 AM to 9:30 AM

(Via zoom) Masamitsu Futai, Recipient of the Japanese Emporer’s Order of the Rising Sun and Emeritus Dean of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Iwate Medical University, Morioka, Japan

9:30 AM to 9:50 AM

(Via Zoom) Yongguan Zhu, Member, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Director, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen, China

9:50 AM to 10:10 AM

(Via Zoom) Simon Silver, Professor, Department of Microbiology, University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine 

10:10 AM to 10:30 AM

(Via Zoom) Chris Rensing, Resources and Environment, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, China

10:30 AM to 10:50 AM

 Coffee Break

11:10 AM to 11:30 AM

Timothy Stemmler, Professor, Interim Vice President for Research, Wayne State University

11:30 AM to 11:50 AM

Tongqing Zhou, Chief, Structural Bioinformatics Core, Vaccine Research Center, National Institutes of Health

11:50 AM to 12:10 PM

Suresh Ambudkar, Deputy Chief and Senior Investigator, Laboratory of Cell Biology, CCR, National Cancer Institute, NIH

12:10 PM to 1:20 PM

Lunch (Catered)

1:20 PM to 1:40 PM

Session Chair (Kan Jen Tsai) 

Yung-Feng Lin, School of Medical Laboratory Science and Biotechnology, Taipei Medical University, Taiwan

1:20 PM to 1:40 PM

Parjit Kaur, Biology Department, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia

2:00 PM to 2:20 PM

Yan Sun, Associate Professor, Emory University

2:20 PM to 2:40 PM

Masafumi Yoshinaga, Associate Professor, Kennesaw State University, Associate Professor, College of Science and Mathematics, Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, Georgia

2:40 PM to 3:00 PM

Coffee Break

3:00 PM to 3:20 PM

Session Chair (Mashfumi Yoshinaga)

Zijuan Liu, Professor, Oakland University

3:20 PM to 3:40 PM

Yong Cai, Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, School of Integrated Science and Humanity, College of Arts, Sciences & Education, FIU

3:40 PM to 4:00 PM

Flexible

4:00 PM to 4:40 PM

 Open free discussion/ Closing remarks

5:30 PM to 8:00 PM

Dinner Monty's of Coconut Grove

Saturday December 7, 2024 (Bus will be provided)

8:00 AM to 12:30 PM

Field trip (Everglades National Park), Box Lunch

1:30 PM

Return to Hotel and dismissal

Registration is free to attendees.

The registration includes: Travels between Hotels and Venue; Day Trip to Everglades National Park; Dinner reception (Dec 6), Lunch (Dec 7 and 8), Dinner banquet (Dec 7).

Attendee
No. of Guests
Address
Everglades trips
Special diet?

MARC Pavilion, Florida International University

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Pullman, Miami International Airport

Address: Address: 5800 Waterford District Dr, Miami, FL 33126

Phone: (305) 264-4888

A block of rooms has been booked for conferences attendees and guests. A standard room at $189 a night was guaranteed.

From Miami International Airport (MIA)

Hotel provides shuttle bus to/ from MI